How a dedicated isolation unit helped a calf-rearing business
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Setting up a dedicated TB isolation unit and selling weaned calves has allowed
Farmers Weekly Young Farmer of the Year Bertie Newman to increase output on his 607ha (1,499-acre) organic farm in Dorset.
Mr Newman, 25, set up a dairy-beef calf-rearing facility in autumn 2019 by converting an existing shed on rented ground and sourcing dairy-beef calves from TB-restricted holdings.
“We are organic, and part of being successful in that is having lots of hectares,” he says.
“But that has its limitations. I got to a point where I realised there were only so many suckler calves I could keep, so I started thinking about how I could produce more beef from a smaller number of hectares.